How the Lord pulls us up out of the garbage of our past and dances with us on top of the dumpster.

Monthly Archives: April 2017

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. Hebrews 5:12

Our pastor shared this verse last night and how spiritual maturity has nothing to do with a person’s age. We can accept Christ as our Savior and not grow for 30 years.

Every day we have a choice to learn more about the Lord by reading His Word and spending time in His presence. Meditation, solitude and prayer are a few spiritual disciplines that will help us grow.

If we do nothing and take our relationship with the Lord for granted, we won’t develop spiritually. With marriage or any relationship if we don’t spend time getting to know one another there won’t be much depth to the relationship.

The same is true with The Lord. Of course we won’t know Him which will lead to still needing a baby bottle instead of growing up in faith. When I first became a Christian I felt the Lord was always speaking to me and making it real obvious.

After a couple of years I noticed he seemed to stop speaking to me.? I questioned the change and felt in my spirit that I was no longer a baby spiritually and it was time to walk by faith. I didn’t like it at all, but it was part of growing.

Our children would never learn to walk if we carried them everywhere they went. When we first start to walk with the Lord He may carry us like babies, then he allows us to walk on our own and sometimes we fall and skin our knees.

Growing spiritually does take a lot of effort just like anything else we want to be good at. Working out, learning a new job, playing a sport or piano or doing physical therapy on your shoulder. All of it takes a lot of effort if you want to grow.

One can always choose to stay stagnant. I could have chosen to NOT do rehab on my shoulder. I would not have been able to use my arm again.

I’m still going through a lot of pain and effort to rebuild strength and gain range of motion. The doctor said it would take a year of effort to regain strength and mobility.

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 2 Corinthians 4: 17

I don’t know about you, but most of the time when we are in the middle of a “trouble” it feels big and long. In the grand scheme of things, the big picture view of our life, the trouble isn’t very long.

Our life is just a blink of an eye compared to eternity. However, when we are in the middle of an emotion or an incident it seems to last much longer and our perspective gets skewed by the depths of our feelings in the moment.

I’m not sure what kind of glory our troubles are producing for us? I do believe they create a depth within us that manifests maturity and character that can’t be produced in any other way.

There are many character traits that can’t be taught. Respect, compassion and seeing the big picture are just a few. Humility is another that I believes comes from failing many times and getting back up.

We apply first aid (Lord’s presence) to our knees and continue walking. We may have a limp or pain with each step, nevertheless, we put one foot in front of the other.

I love this verse: The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. Psalm 145:18 When we are hurting or when we want to gain wisdom or if we just want to be with Him because he is our all in all, he is there, available ready to listen.

My Pearl today is that we can walk with a limp and have peace while we still live with troubles all around us.

So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time-before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. 1 Corinthians 4:5

We discussed this verse tonight in our small group. Its always a good principle to not judge others by what we see. There is usually more to the story then what we can see.

The comforting thing about this verse is that we know the Lord will reveal truth and we don’t have to. We can keep our mouths shut and justice will be served.

We went out to dinner with some friends before group and we were discussing bullies. What we sow we will reap. I shared how a supposed friend of mine made up lies about me so others wouldn’t be friends with me.

In the end the truth came out. Although I was completely crushed at the time, I now look back and see how the Lord brought the truth to light. It wasn’t until after this friend spread rumors about me.

For awhile people believed the rumors and then they got to know me and they soon learned I was nothing like what was being said about me.

My dad was not very popular and as a result neither was I. I was made fun of and bullied many times.

In the end, I can take comfort in the fact that the Lord is my defender and as long as I have not sinned against Him. I’m ok. If others want to spread lies about me, I can’t stop them. I can state the truth and leave it at that.

My Pearl today is that I have a protector and defender who will stand with me. I will stand with Him and walk as closely as I can to Him. Everything else will fall into place.

He who began a good work in me will finish it till the end! Today I had my performance appraisal with my manager. Its always makes me a little nervous wondering what negative or positive things are going to be said about me.

I feel bad for my manager because I wonder how she can find the right words for everyone. Especially if she has to be tactful about saying negative things.

The sandwich technique, is used often, surrounding a negative comment with two positive comments. The sandwich is easier to swallow.

I use to have a hard time with positive comments about me. Today was the first time I remember feeling good that I was hearing good things about my performance. The Lord has given me the ability to be a hard worker.

I’m grateful for the natural work ethic the Lord has seemingly instilled in me. I don’t take it for granted. In fact I don’t take it for granted that I GET to work. I never know how long I will get to work.

I see every day how our health can deteriorate in the matter of weeks to days. I don’t ever want to take my abilities for granted.

A person asked me today, “Have you thought of going into the funeral business?” I inquired what they meant? She said, your like the person who meets you at the door of a funeral parlor and asks who are you here to see?” I think she meant my presence was comforting, or I hope this is what she meant.?

I took it as confirmation that hospice is where I belong.

My Pearl today is that the Lord has given me talents/personality that can make a difference in this world. I am truly grateful!

For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Someday we will see everything clearly. All our questions will be answered! I don’t know about you, but I have many! His spirit will reveal all truth to us. In that moment when we become like Him and have his knowledge, our questions will dissipate.

When we have a glorified body like His, we won’t have to sleep. I have a hard time imagining this one! I’m tired all the time and can’t seem to get enough rest.

This is why we can’t imagine our life through His eyes because we are still in this world with our limited view. But the day is coming when we will see clearly and everything will make sense. I can’t wait!

We have put our house on the market and we have prepared for two showings so far. I have to admit, I am already tired of the prep and the process. I don’t know about you, but we don’t keep our house show ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

I can’t even have clean laundry laying around and the beds need to be made. Ok so, yes, I’m telling on myself, that doesn’t always happen every day or even every week. It seems there is always something laying around in one of the rooms.

When your wanting to show your house, it needs to look like a model. My husband is very meticulous about vacuuming the carpets as we back out of the room. As to leave everything freshly vacuumed.

My Pearl is someday I will have all the energy I need to do everything I want.

I read a story about a little five year old boy who had a unique disease. His body fought the disease and formed antibodies. His sister had the same disease and needed a blood transfusion with blood that had the antibodies. Her brother had the blood she needed.

The doctor and the family asked the little boy if he would give his blood to his sister? He said he would if it would save her.

After the transfusion the little boy asked the doctor, ” How long until I die?”

The little boy had understood that he was giving all his blood for his sister and would die. Wow! He was willing to die for his sister.

This story reminded me of what happened when I was a a little girl. I had my first surgery at four years old; my tonsils were removed.

My brother being the lovely older brother every little sister wants, told me that I would die if I had the surgery.

I didn’t say a word and I vividly recall thinking well, this is it, as I was rolled out of my room on a cart. I was taken to a surgical room and parked in a line of other carts. No one was on any of the other carts. I figured they had all died?

I could see all the people with green scrubs and green hats as they walked by. I remember they were all so nice to me and I wondered if it was because they knew I was going to die?

It’s interesting that I have never been uncomfortable with death, even at four, I didn’t seem bothered with the idea.?

The first thing I said when I woke up was, “I didn’t die?” My Mom was flabbergasted and said, why do you say something like that? I informed her that my brother had told me I would die.

My Pearl is that The Lord wired me in a weird way, which is why I now work with hospice and don’t find death something uncomfortable to talk about?

I read this story about a urologist his name with Dr. Winkel. His office logo said, “If you can’t tinkle, come see Dr. Winkel! He was interviewed and was known to believe that being a urologist was his calling.

We get a notion that we can’t be called to our work by God, unless its working in the church or missionary work. This is a misconception. We are called to be Jesus hands right where we are planted.

A group of us from church brainstormed this question: What job would I be doing if all jobs paid exactly the same?

I had to admit, one of the things I would have liked to do, when I was younger, is be the garbage collector. I thought it looked like so much fun to ride around on the back of the truck. The smell of course would be another story.

My body could no longer handle this job anyway.

Another thing I could see myself doing is owning a small coffee shop and having a down home feel where everyone who came in would be known by name. I also thought it would be fun to be a walmart greeter.

Anything in customer service would be something I like to do. I get bored quickly so I need something to keep me challenged.

Of course, I believe I’m doing just what the Lord has called me to, which is loving and supporting patients and families in the grieving process. I am going to be the best hospice nurse I can be.